Before you get too excited or frightened by the word fasting, give me a chance to explain it more in-depth. Chapter three is going to go much deeper, but let’s do a short review in case it hit your internal panic button.Chapter Two
“This way of living changed my life. I found that removing gluten from my diet made me feel better. I found that I love the combination of truly healthy, nutritional foods. I loved tracking my macros to see how it affected my eating choices. I love lifting weights— something that women in my generation were not encouraged to do because it would make us look masculine! How about making us strong? Post-menopausal women need strength so that they can age well, avoid falls, and play with their grandchildren! Through the program, I have been able to lose more than 40 inches from all over my body and drop three pant sizes. And I am still pursuing fitness goals to gain more strength.”
—Briane K.
Fat loss isn’t really the biggest mystery in the world. Don’t let generations of bad information fool you, because we have the answer.
In order to effectively burn fat, we must do the following:
That is how the FASTer Way is different from other extreme diets or controversial ways of losing weight. The FASTer Way is something you can happily do (without being deprived) for the rest of your life, because of the six components that set us apart.
Intermittent fasting
Carb cycling
Macro tracking
Whole food nutrition
Strategic workouts
Community
In the FASTer Way, you eat the right foods at the right time, do a variety of high intensity interval training (HIIT), lifting, and fat-burning exercises with strategic workouts designed for you, and participate in a community of people ready to help you. All of those requirements to burn fat in the list up there? We hit every one of them.
Let’s do a quick review here before we delve into the nitty-gritty behind FASTer Way.
Before you get too excited or frightened by the word fasting, give me a chance to explain it more in-depth. Chapter three is going to go much deeper, but let’s do a short review in case it hit your internal panic button.
For our purposes here, let’s just be clear: you already fast. Every single day. In fact, your body is always in one of two states: fed or fasted. If you’re digesting food, you’re in the fed state. That means you have higher levels of insulin in your bloodstream, which makes burning fat a challenge. For 8-12 hours after your body finishes digesting, you’re in the fasted state. That means lower insulin and more fat use. That’s fasting. Not so scary.
What I like to do with intermittent fasting is to strategically use the boost that the fasting state gives us metabolically to burn fat faster.
We’ll get into that more later.
Carbs have really been through the wringer, haven’t they?
Read one article, and you’ll hear they’re awful and should be eliminated. Read another, and you’ll hear they’re our preferred source of energy. Carbs cause insulin spikes—and those are good. No, they’re bad. Insulin is our friend, then our enemy. Which is right?
And, why am I over here still eating donuts?
Because this is about strategy. Carb cycling is a tool in your belt to help optimize fat loss through increasing thyroid output and controlling hunger. At the FASTer Way, we have high-carb days and low-carb days. If you restrict carbs intensely, over time that adds up to a struggling metabolism. Because, guess what? It’s true. Our body does use carbs as brain fuel.5 But, we need to give it to our body in the right amounts.
Carb cycling ensures fat loss, higher energy levels, and improvement to overall body composition.
Macros are the carbohydrates, fat, and protein you’re consuming. We don’t care about calories around here; we just want the right amount of the right nutrients so we can burn fat. There are a lot of ways to track your macros, from writing it in a journal to plugging it into an app.
Everyone has different goals and different bodies, which also means you should have different macros. In the FASTer Way, you won’t have the same macronutrients as other people because we base it on your activity level, your height, your weight, and your health history.
When we decide your macros, this is the only time during the FASTer Way that your weight really matters. Weight loss isn’t our goal—fat loss is. When doing exercise, you can increase your muscle mass, which would change your weight, but still lose fat.
Whole food nutrition is as simple as it gets. Here’s our basic rule: if it comes from the ground or has a mother, it’s fair game.
At the FASTer Way, we focus on clean eating. We reduce inflammatory foods like dairy, gluten, and foods that don’t make us feel good. Each person requires different foods, so you’ll decide which of these foods you’ll eat on an individual basis. We’re going to be focusing on foods that promote your best health.
Building lean muscle helps us burn fat, so we approach our workouts with the goal to build more lean muscle. We do that through a combination of HIIT, fat-burning cardio, and lifting heavy, as well as an emphasis on rest. Restorative rest!
The FASTer Way to Fat Loss is all about having a healthier body, more energy, better life expectancy, and all the latest science wrapped up in one deliverable package. If you’re still with me, that means you’re probably ready to learn more.
But it’s not enough that I tell you all these incredible stories of other people that have achieved extraordinary things: you need the science. The facts. The studies. If you turn to the back, you’ll find a robust references page because science supports the FASTer Way.
You’ll see stories of other successful people who have started the FASTer Way throughout this book—with details on all the ways FASTer Way to Fat Loss has changed their lives. Keep reading.
Now it’s time to dive deeper.
I could tell you all about these highly effective nutrition strategies, show you the strategic workouts, and send you on your way, but I'd much rather set you up for long-term success.
The key to turning the FASTer Way into a lifestyle and reaching the highest level of success is all in our community.
It has long been known that being in a community can help people change their health behaviors, and now studies show that social support—whether it be in person or online—is crucial for sustainable behavior change.6
Being a part of a positive community with others who are on the same journey can make you feel less alone and further motivate you to stick with the plan.
TOGETHER, YOU CAN OVERCOME HURDLES, CELEBRATE VICTORIES, AND TRULY GAIN SUPERIOR RESULTS.